Merging two local websites into one - disaster?

coopplayer

So I've got two businesses in two different cities. Each had its own website, solid first-page rankings for local searches. Seemed like a good idea to consolidate into a single site - easier to update, unified brand presence. Cancelled one old site, kept the other, and built a fresh one on Wix.

Now? Absolute nightmare. the new site is languishing on page three for both cities. the old site that's still live is holding first-page rankings, but i can't get the redirects to work properly. my marketing guy's been handling it, but honestly? Things have gone quiet. Business has dropped off.

the original plan made sense on paper - one website with dedicated location pages, two Google Business Profiles. But the execution has been a shambles. Now I'm stuck: do I keep flogging this dead-horse single site, or crawl back to having two separate domains?

Anyone else been through this grinder? Feeling like I've torched months of SEO equity for a branding pipe dream

neonlights

Activation-wise, keeping everything under one roof is a no-brainer. Two nearly identical businesses under one brand? Single site with localised landing pages, two Google Business Profiles. You preserve authority and link equity rather than bleeding it across two domains. Harder to scale activation if you split the signal.

brandvoice

Going from two established local sites to a brand new domain usually stings unless the migration is airtight. You changed the domain structure, killed one site entirely, broke redirects, and now Google has to relearn relevance for both cities from scratch. I've seen that happen more times than I can count - it's gutting when all that local authority just vanishes overnight.

One site covering two locations can work perfectly well. Plenty of businesses do it. But you really want strong city-specific landing pages, clean 301s from every old URL to its matching new one, consistent local signals (NAP, GMB, citations), and a good dose of patience.

Honestly, the broken redirects would worry me far more than the "one site vs two" decision. That's the first thing I'd audit - and I bet cancelling site 2 before the migration fully settled didn't help either. Those redirects are your lifeblood right now. Get them fixed, then let Google settle before making any more drastic moves.

copycat

I've definitely been down this road before, and the best approach is one website with dedicated location pages. That way you can set up separate Google Business Profiles for each spot and really own the map results. Link from each GBP to its corresponding location page, and you'll boost local relevance while steering clear of the headaches the diversity update can cause.

coopplayer

that exact scenario gave me nightmares. Two identical businesses, two locations, two websites - sounds clean on paper but in practice it's a brand perception nightmare. when you consolidate, you're essentially telling Google you had duplicate content, and it takes ages to rebuild that local authority.

Your marketing guy should have set up proper 301 redirects with Google Search Console and updated your Google Business Profiles to point to the single site with location pages. without that, you're left with that messy ranking limbo you're in now - page 3 and 4 is basically invisible for local intent.

yes, one website with dedicated location pages is still the right play long-term, but only if you rebuild those local signals properly. don't just merge and hope. you need fresh location-specific content, local backlinks, and consistent NAP across directories. Otherwise you'll stay stuck in no-man's-land

neonlights

mate, consolidate them. Yes, rankings take a hit short-term, but the long-term ROI crushes it. splitting effort across two sites is just diluting your domain authority and wasting resources that could be thrown into one proper activation engine.

A single site means you funnel all that link equity, content budget, and user data into one asset. Activation rates will climb because you're not confusing users or Google with two separate entities. That's just basic product-led growth.

The only nuance I'd flag is if you've got radically different service lines or locations that genuinely warrant separate branding. Even then, a subfolder structure usually wins. redirects failing? That's either a caching issue on your end or someone botched the 301 mapping. get the redirect chain right, use a proper tool like Screaming Frog to audit, and you're set.

I'd host them on separate subdirectories under one root domain and never look back.